Circumpolar Action Plan

Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceThe Circumpolar Action Plan’s (CAP) comprehensive list of actions and commitments (Annex III) span a timeframe of 10 years. Due to the challenge of allocating resources and responsibilities to plan activities in detail for the full 10-year period, a suite of 2-year implementation plans, each focusing on a limited set of actions, serve as a strategic tool for ensuring progressive completion of the full list of actions in the CAP.

The shorter duration of these implementation plans enables the Range States to carry out collaborative actions that align with national activities, priorities and strategies. The 2-year plans serve as the implementation schedule of the CAP, and allow the Range States to ensure progress, flexibility and efficiency in their circumpolar cooperation.

The two-year implementation plans (developed by the CAP Implementation Team) are presented for agreement biennially at the Meetings of the Parties (MoP) to the Agreement. Progress on the 2015-2017 2-Year Implementation Plan was reported in November 2017. Progress on the 2018-2020 2-Year Implementation Plan will be reported prior to the 2020 MoP.

Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceThe 2018-2020 2-Year Implementation Plan was adopted at the 2018 Meeting of the Parties (MoP) to the Agreement in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. Progress on the 2018-2020 Plan will be reported prior to the 2020 MoP in Norway. All reports will be made available here to download.

Progress on the 2015-2017 2-Year Implementation Plan was reported in November 2017.

Progress on the 2015-2017 2-Year Implementation Plan was reported in November 2017 and is summarized below. The full report can be found here and links to individual reports can be found below and here.

Download the 2 year action plan 2015-2017	Download the Progress Report of CAP Actions 2015-2017
Photo credit: Mario Hoppmann/Flickr.com	Photo credit: Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Access all Action reports	Download the Progress Report of CAP Actions 2018-2020
Photo: Dr. Pablo Clemente Colon NOAA National Ice Center/Flickr.com	Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Circumpolar Action Plan (CAP) is a 10-year cooperation plan between the Range States that aims to strengthen their efforts in polar bear conservation. The plan was adopted in 2015.

At the biennial meeting of the Polar Bear Agreement in Greenland in 2015, the Range States adopted the CAP with the goal to foster and strengthen international cooperation to conserve polar bears across their range. The CAP builds on each country’s national efforts and aims to lead to more efficient and effective use of conservation resources.

The vision of the CAP is to secure the long-term persistence of polar bears in the wild that represent the genetic, behavioral, and ecological diversity of the species.

Seven key threats are identified in the CAP; of these human-induced climate change and the effects of such changes on habitat and prey is considered the primary threat. The other threats include human-caused mortality; mineral and energy resource exploration and development; contaminants and pollution; shipping; tourism-related activities, and disease.

The vision of the plan is supported by six objectives. The objectives are to:

minimize threats to polar bears and their habitat
communicate to the public, policy makers, and legislators around the world the importance of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions to polar bear conservation
ensure the preservation and protection of essential habitat for polar bears
ensure responsible harvest management systems today that will sustain polar bear subpopulations for future generations
manage human-bear interactions to ensure human safety and to minimize polar bear injury or mortality
ensure that international legal trade of polar bears is carried out according to conservation principles and that poaching and illegal trade are curtailed.

The CAP contains strategies and 62 actions geared towards meeting these objectives by 2025. At each Range State biennial meeting, a 2-year implementation plan will be adopted, where a set of actions from the CAP that are to be worked on in the following 2-year interim are identified.

The full text of the CAP, as well as appendices and annexes, can be downloaded here:

Circumpolar Action Plan (CAP)
CAP Appendix I – 1973 Agreement
CAP Appendix II – 2013 Declaration
CAP Appendix III – Monitoring Framework
CAP Appendix IV – Conventions
CAP Appendix V – Subpopulation Inventory Schedule
CAP Appendix VI – Subpopulation TEK Schedule
CAP Annex I – Mineral and Energy Exploration and Development
CAP Annex II – Details of Bilateral Agreements
CAP Annex III – Action Table 2015-2025